Despite my mother country’s best imperialistic efforts, not everyone in Korea wears red, white and blue or can speak English. In fact very few people can or desire to do either. This fact, and the fact that Korean writing characters are difficult to recognize for a mid-westerner who only got a passport when he was 22 means a few things can be challenging. Finding water, hotels and restaurants, route finding and ordering food requires a bit of charades mixed with luck; the latter more important for success.
Because of the mid day heat, finding a lunch spot was less about food and more about A/C and wifi. My partner has priorities in life and just under caffeine, number 1 on the priority list, is the ability to Instagram and Facebook. I am all about the afternoon siesta and since we pretty much ate what we were given the A/C and wifi took precedence over cuisine in our selection. We scored on day 1 on all accounts with catfish stew but not without a fair bit of effort. Day 2 was terribly sophisticated since we made it to the Silicon Valley of Korea. It was a chai latte upstairs at the coffee shop followed by a civilized restaurant downstairs. Day 3 was mediocre at best, but not from lack of effort by the lady who ran the joint.
Nighttime accommodation was also a challenge but you develop coping techniques quickly: Pimp out your partner to young male Korean college students who in return shows you were to go. Given the said partner had a ‘fabulous, divine’ and generally over the top personality in a society known for subtlety, this wasn’t too difficult. There was also not a lot of competition, as you wouldn’t catch a Korean woman cycling in this sun! Thousands of Korean Won spent on whitening creams flushed down the drain by a toxic dose of sunlight, I think not.
our life nomadic 